Alstrom, Kirby

Deputy sheriff Kirby Alstrom claimed multiple injuries including a 1997 low back injury, a 2017 right foot/GERD injury, and a cumulative trauma injury for internal conditions. The WCJ found injury based on AME opinions, attributing the low back to the specific 1997 event without apportionment, and finding no cumulative injury to the spine. Both parties petitioned for reconsideration. The Board held that the duty belt presumption under Labor Code section 3213.2 applies to peace officers wearing a duty belt for over five years, making the low back injury presumptively a cumulative industrial injury that must be apportioned to that cumulative trauma under section 4663(e), and found that AME Dr. Previte's contrary opinion (that a duty belt cannot cause lumbar injury) was legally incorrect and not substantial medical evidence. The Board also found Dr. Hyman's apportionment opinions on skin and GERD non-substantial and directed development on whether actinic skin damage qualifies as cancer under section 3212.1. The Board rejected defendant's statute of limitations defense and rescinded the findings, returning the matter for further development of the record.